


To the Rescue

by Welfycat



Series: Stargate High School [4]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-26
Updated: 2010-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-14 03:23:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When John gets in trouble it's for the same reason almost every time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Suspension/Expulsion  
> Content Notes: Minor violence.

It was the start of the sixth week of school and John was pretty well settled in, Stargate High somehow more comfortable and fitting than any of the other schools he'd been in before. He still didn't really have friends, but he had some acquaintances, and that was better start than usual.

Rodney and Radek from his morning gym class had latched onto him, all united against Todd. John had been right; interfering with the situation between Todd and Rodney had put them all on the acceptable target list, particularly for members of Todd's gang. But, they were all pretty manageable and it was worth it to be able to spend the morning chatting with Rodney and Radek. Rodney was also in his math class and was continually surprised when John said something that proved just how much advanced math he understood.

As good as Stargate High was, with all the classes being tolerable, and the teachers nice if more than a little eccentric, a problem was slowly rising to the surface.

No, scratch that, John thought as he slumped on the bench next to the vice principal's office, holding an ice pack to his eye and trying to ignore the throbbing in his side and his wrist. The problem had risen to the surface, and like an iceberg, was much bigger than he'd originally imagined.

Acastus Kolya was also in John and Rodney's math class and their friendship seemed to bother Kolya more than John could explain. At first, John had assumed that Kolya was a member of Todd's buddies, who had taken to lurking by corners when they saw him coming so they could shove John or try to trip him. Rodney and Radek had showed him some of the less frequented paths in the school and they'd continued to place booby traps in lockers and other petty stuff that at least made the playing field a little more even.

But when John saw Todd having a go at Kolya, holding him against the wall while speaking softly enough that John couldn't figure out what he was saying, John interfered. He pulled Todd off with enough force that Todd stumbled, nearly dropping to the ground before he managed to regain his balance. Todd took one look at John and Kolya and started laughing before disappearing off into the mass of students that were pouring through the hallway. John sighed a bit, at least one thing was the same as all the other schools he'd been to; teachers were never around when they were needed.

"You alright," John had asked Kolya.

Kolya had been rubbing where Todd had been gripping him, but stopped when he realized John was watching him. "You shouldn't have done that."

John had a weird flashback to rescuing Rodney in gym class and just wondered if this was the way that he made friends. "I couldn't just let him," he tried to explain.

Kolya glared. "You shouldn't have done that," he repeated with more feeling, giving John a hard shove against the wall before taking off.

And now two weeks later, John had come out on the wrong side of a fight with Kolya and was probably going to be suspended for his trouble.

"Hey," Rodney whispered, sneaking up to John. "Are you okay?"

John adjusted his ice pack and blinked at Rodney. "You're cutting class and you come near the vice principal's office?"

Rodney shrugged uncomfortably and sat down next to John. "I needed to see if you were okay. I stole one of the bathroom passes from the computer lab." He held up the pass hopefully.

John started to roll his eyes but stopped abruptly when he realized exactly how much that hurt. "I don't think having a bathroom pass is going to work if the vice principal finds you here."

"I don't care," Rodney said, glancing nervously at the door to the office. "I had to know. Are you going to be expelled?"

"No," John said, feeling a little more ill than he had just moments earlier. He didn't think he was going to be expelled, usually a few days suspension was pretty standard for being in a fight, but with all the no-tolerance policies that were being bandied about, it was a horrifying possibility. He didn't want to imagine leaving Stargate High and starting over somewhere else, not when he had people who he knew and who knew him.

"Good," Rodney said. "Look, you don't have to keep putting yourself in between me and Kolya, I can handle him just fine."

John tried to raise his eyebrow to indicate what he thought of that, but gave that up pretty quickly. "Rodney, he could have seriously hurt you. Are you okay?" He set down his ice pack so that he could get a better look at Rodney, squinting though his already swollen eye.

Rodney rolled up his sleeve to show where Kolya had been gripping him, digging into the skin with his fingernails. The marks weren't bloody but Rodney would have one hell of a bruise. "Not bad, there's been worse."

"What is this thing with Kolya, anyway?" John finally asked.

When he'd seen Kolya walking towards the out of the way bathrooms instead of to their math class, John had followed on instinct. The bathrooms in the back of the school were popular with Rodney, Radek and the rest of the people who were on the run from Todd and his groupies. But by virtue of being mostly safe because they were out of the way, there was also less likely to be someone around to help should someone else wander back there.

Less than a minute later he found Kolya gripping onto Rodney's arm and forcing him down to the ground. Kolya had looked up and watched John as Rodney whimpered, helplessly caught in Kolya's grasp. Without thinking about it, John had leapt at Kolya, pinning him to the ground and getting at least one good punch in before Kolya had rolled him and started fighting back. John was a little ashamed that Kolya had probably came out of this with fewer injuries, after Mr. Teal'c and Mr. Felger, their math teacher, had come and pulled them apart.

"Kolya and I used to be, not friends. But we were both getting bothered by Todd and we teamed up a little. I guess, when he saw us hanging out together he thought that," Rodney shrugged. "I don't know what he thought. But he doesn't seem like he's thinking all that clearly right now. He's always been a little bit unstable, but he's never attacked me like that before."

John nodded shortly. "That's because you were just bait, he was trying to get to me." The pieces were slowly falling together for him and Kolya's reaction when John had stepped in suddenly made sense. Not a lot of sense, because Kolya should have just joined up with them against Todd, but still a little bit of sense. If someone had moved in and took away John's friend, John would've reacted badly too.

"I hope you don't get expelled," Rodney said again, looking anxious.

"I won't. Go back to class before they find you out here and you get in trouble too," John said.

Rodney looked torn, obviously wanting to be out of the range of fire but wanting to stay with John too. "Are you sure I shouldn't stay and tell them that Kolya attacked me first?"

John shook his head. "It will only make things worse and get you involved. I'll be back in a few days. You and Radek try to stay low and out of sight, but don't go off anywhere alone either." He thought for a moment before adding, "if you run into serious trouble, talk to Ronon and Teyla, they'd be willing to help."

Ronon and Teyla were both in the martial arts training club that Mr. Teal'c held after school twice a week that John had started attending. Ordinarily he wouldn't suggest that Rodney go to anyone else for protection, not wanting to get another person involved that didn't have to be, but Ronon and Teyla were already involved and they could both kick John's ass without breaking a sweat.

Rodney nodded, looking a lot like a puppy that was being left at home while everyone else was leaving. "See you soon," he said before hurrying off, clutching the bathroom pass in what looked like a death grip.

John sighed and held the icepack back to his eye, trying not to feel terribly sorry for himself and trying not to think about anything in particular.

*****

"Care to tell me what happened, John?" the vice principal asked, leaning back in his chair as John sat down across from him.

"I got in a fight, sir," John said. He fought to keep his tone as not belligerent as possible, but it was hard to do that knowing he was about to get in serious trouble for protecting a friend.

The vice principal leaned forward and picked up a pen from the desk, but instead of writing anything down he just started spinning it between his fingers. "Let's skip the sir, and you can call me Jack."

John looked down at the ugly patterned carpet and tried to keep his mind blank. It was another one of those 'I want to be your friend' administrators who acted all nice and casual on the outside but were really no better than the hard nosed ones. At least those ones told it to you straight.

"I've scanned through your file, and I see you've been expelled before. Is there anything you want to say about that?" Jack asked.

John closed his eyes for a minute, the word 'expelled' making his heart leap. "I was helping a friend," he said. It was the truth, just like here he'd been trying to stop someone from getting hurt. Even though he hadn't succeeded that time and the whole fiasco had turned out worse that he could have possibly predicted, he still would do the exact same thing all over again. Only, now if he got expelled he would be leaving Rodney and Radek to fend for themselves after making the entire situation worse.

Jack stopped playing with his pen and leaned forward. "I understand that."

John met Jack's eyes for a brief moment and was surprised to find genuine compassion and understanding.

"So why don't you tell me what happened today?" Jack asked again.

John sighed. Telling the truth about these things so rarely did any good, but there wasn't much to say in any case. "Kolya jumped one of my friends in the bathroom. I grabbed him and punched him. Kolya punched me back."

"Who was your friend that Kolya attacked?" Jack asked.

John shook his head. He'd told Rodney that he wasn't going to drag him into this, and he wouldn't.

Jack sighed but started filling out a form. "Yeah, I wouldn't either. I'm suspending you for three days, I suggest you use that time to concentrate on keeping up on your classwork."

"Thank you, sir," John said. Relief flooded through him, as much as he'd rather not be suspended, it was a billion times better than getting expelled.

Jack looked at John for a long moment before pushing the phone on his desk over to John. "Go ahead and call your parents and let them know they need to come and check you out of school. We'll let them know that you should probably get checked out with your family doc as well. I know Fraiser looked you over, but a school nurse can only do so much."

John picked up the phone and started dialing his father's cell phone, imagining that gratitude that John hadn't been expelled wasn't going to be high on the list of things that his father was going to be feeling.

When John hung up the phone, his father's terse "I'll be there in twenty minutes", still ringing in John's ears, John found Jack looking at him with an almost fond expression.

"I know things don't look too good right now," Jack said. "But you'll figure it out."

John nodded mutely; Jack was right, things didn't look so good right now.


End file.
